Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cycloid drives. More specifically, the present invention discloses an epicycloid planet gear mounted recessed cam track for converting rotational movement of a driveshaft into linear movement of an output object while utilizing the advantageous speed reduction and torque magnification properties of a cycloid drive combined with the incline mechanical advantage of an inclined cam track.
Description of the Prior Art
A leadscrew is a screw used to translate rotary input motion into useful linear output motion. The conventional leadscrew is a threaded screw that mates with a nut. As the threaded screw rotates, the nut moves along the screw either forward or backward. A load connected to the nut moves along with the nut.
Disadvantages of a leadscrew are that thread pitches below 0.2 mm are difficult and costly to manufacture, leading to a practical limit of 0.2 mm step sizes per revolution of a rotary input device, load carrying capacities and efficiencies of such micro threads are very limited, and it is difficult to achieve anything other than a constant output motion of a driven device by varying the pitch of a leadscrew.
Another method for translating rotary motion into useful linear motion is by using a speed reduction gear train whose output gear causes a circular cam to rotate, thereby creating linear output motion of some driven component.
Disadvantages of a gear train driven cam are its complexity if large speed reductions are required, the inherent inaccuracy and higher cost of so many moving parts and the space requirements necessary to fit so many mechanical parts.
Therefore, there is need for an improved means of efficiently, compactly, accurately and economically translating high speed, low force rotational motion into low speed, increased force linear motion.